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Instructors - Manage Your Class Email Lists

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About Class Email Lists

SPIRE allows you to create email lists for the classes you are teaching each term (including summer and winter sessions). Use these lists to send announcements to your students or to set up discussions on course-related topics.

Use SPIRE to create, refresh, and delete class email lists. Once a list has been created, use Mailman, IT's Web-based list management software, to manage it. Information on this page applies only to aspects of maillist management that you can complete in SPIRE. Be sure to learn more about managing class email lists in Mailman.

Note:

You must use your IT/campus email account to send messages to your class email list. Mailman will not recognize your other email accounts and so will discard any maillist messages that you might try to send through them. When you create your list in SPIRE, Mailman uses your IT/campus email account to identify you as the owner of the list, giving you permission to manage the list and to send messages its membership. Mailman will not allow you to create a list if you do not have an IT/campus email account.

Class email lists have only one owner/administrator, i.e., the instructor who creates the list in SPIRE. To change list ownership, the original list owner must delete the list and then the new owner must re-create it.

List owners are subscribed automatically to their class email lists, but additional teaching staff or guests are not. As the list owner, you need to subscribe your teaching partners, TAs, or guests manually, using Mailman.

Lists are deleted automatically at the end of the following semester, e.g., Spring 2010 lists will be deleted at the end of the Fall 2010 term.

Create a List

Lists are based on your class rosters. You can create class email lists for any current and future term, as soon as class rosters become available in SPIRE.

In the SPIRE Menu, go to Faculty Home > Class Email Lists. The Class Email Lists page opens and displays a list of your classes.

On the Class Email Lists page, click Select for any class to open its Create/Edit Class Email Lists page.

On the Create/Edit Class Email Lists page, click Create List to generate the email list. A new email list name appears in the List Name field and a message, “List create pending” appears at the bottom of the page.Note:

It takes about an hour to create a list. Check your Campu Email account for a confirmation message.

To send an email to your class, use the address in the List Name field.

Once your list is created, use Mailman to add and delete subscribers, manage posting guidelines, or access the message archive. To access Mailman, at the bottom of the Create/Edit Class Email Lists page, click List Administration page. You will be prompted for your campus email password. Note: The List Administration page link appears only after your list is created.
Learn more about managing class email lists.

Refresh a List

Your class email lists include the students enrolled in your classes at the time a list is created. As students add and drop your classes, it is critical that you refresh your lists, especially during the registration period.

On the Create/Edit Class Email Lists page:

Select the Automatically refresh list daily during registration check box to enable automatic updates. Every day during the registration period, SPIRE will update your list based on the most recent class roster.Note: This option is not available after the end of add/drop. Because the contents of your list are updated daily, we recommend that you add your TAs only after the registration period ends (see below).

- or -

Click Refresh List for a one-time update. It takes about an hour to refresh a class email list using this method.Note: If you choose this option, remember to refresh your list periodically during the registration period to capture the most recent changes from your class roster. Always refresh your list at the end of add/drop, or whenever students drop or enroll in your class during the semester.

Important! The automatic and manual Refresh options update your list by overwriting the existing list with the most recent class roster. This means that any list members added manually are deleted and need to be re-added using Mailman. Learn how to add subscribers.

Delete a List

On the Create/Edit Class Email Lists page, click Delete List. Your list will be deleted within an hour.

When an email list is deleted, you will not be able to send emails to the class unless you re-create it, although the list name still appears in the List Name field.

Note: Lists are deleted automatically at the end of the following semester.